Harry Hammond (aka Taurus)
History Patty Nicholson's brother who left Drifter's Inn at the age of 18 to work as a security operative in New Yuvon. His role was to help protect Drifter's Inn's secrecy by burying evidence of a larger structure, protecting humans on their one year sabbatical to New Yuvon, and eliminating problems (read: assassination). Due to his own pacifist desires and Dr. Lisa Germaine's suggestion, he instead approached the single ranger squad when they were in New Yuvon and returned with them to ranger town. Due to his prior experiences in flight simulators in Drifter's Inn, he was quickly given a position in the air force. After a year and a half of training, he was assigned to the Aquila for a mission to transport a ranger squad to the outskirts of Lobetful as his first solo run as a flight officer. Salvation used an EMP-like device to force him to crash land the Aquila. A Chosen squad collected him from the tiltjet alongside Jak Dallas and left the rest of the ranger squad to die. They were currently unconscious from their injuries. After three months of solitary confinement, speaking only to voices over a speaker, he was given an initiation ritual where he was asked to choose his name and swear to be Chosen. Whenever he tried to argue the point, they would simply repeat their prior statements until eventually he simply followed the procedure outlined before them. Salvation asked him to get into a tub of what appeared to be white milk that had been placed upon a conveyor belt like structure. The milk swiftly anaethetised him. When he awoke, he was heavily augmented and assigned to the Chosen. After three additional months of brain washing, he was assigned to worked as a pilot on the Aquilla which had been salvaged from Lobetful. Salvation used a personality called "Elsie" to function as his handler. He was assigned to work with Talon so that he could use his diplomatic skills to keep her from killing anyone, and she could provide incentive for him to kill where necessary to spare them execution from Talon's hands. Was MIA presumed Dead until video footage of him during a Salvation raid on the Drifter's Inn was recovered. He had arrived alone, convinced the inn security to allow him inside, and convinced the security council to reconvene to discuss secret matters in a closed council. He then used a pistol and his auto-targeting eye to slaughter the seven elderly members of the council (against Salvation's wishes, as he himself admitted). He then used a hostage to get him into the security office so security could be shut down, allowing him to unlock the main doors so the Salvation squad could come down and use gas grenades to render the populace insensible. Salvation took 30 of the youngest members of Drifter's Inn with them. They did this because the reality of the Omega Crisis meant that the inn personnel, who refused to leave their now publicly known bunker (unveiled when the NASA shuttle launched a couple years ago), meant that all those who remained in the bunker could potentially die. The rest of the bunker personnel, however, evacuated to Ranger Town after their security systems were breached. Was recaptured during the Lighthouse mission when he arrived alone to make contact at a dead drop with Songbird. This was after he had unwittingly guided the Sheriff to the L9 safehouse having found him alone in the outskirts. After grand efforts by the PCs, he was deprogrammed. He displayed a minor obsession over DJ Glitch due to his love of music, which was only strengthened when Salvation tried to provoke him into killing Glitch through neurochemical stimulation, which instead caused him to pace and behave in an offputting fashion that drew unnecessary attention to himself. He worked as a pilot of the Aquila tiltjet for the Lighthouse Mission until they returned to Triway Peak. He vanished at the end of The Lighthouse Mission with the Aquila so that the Chosen wouldn't attack the Lighthouse Mission members to recapture him. Psychiatric Profile As written by Cooper following his capture at the L9 Safehouse. Experiences profound feelings of shame regarding his history with Salvation. Inwardly flinches from signs of compassion and kindness. Self-esteem is critically low. Resentment toward parents and bunker history is clear. Internalises aggression. Use of combat stims from the augmentations simply triggers a psychotic break leading to self-harm and so that aspect of his augmentations were deactivated by Salvation. He has reconciled his current behaviour (capturing humans and murdering unidentified individuals) by stating that his Salvation-mandated murders to be necessary acts of mercy compared to what his partner, Talon, would do to them. He also seems to believe that he can somehow change the people in Salvation to become more in keeping with his moral principles but is vague on how he would accomplish this. He complies readily with authority figures and even when captured seemed to respond to the rangers and to Dr. Lisa Germaine’s requests and orders with desperate compliance. He has frequently requested his blue bouncy ball which is apparently the only blue thing he is allowed to have. Considering the importance of the colour blue to rangers, this likely reflects previous attempts at resistance based in the colour blue. When provided with the ranger probationary book, he identified it by touch and then placed it in his shirt against his heart. He is terrified of what Salvation would do to Ranger Town if he were to return to the rangers. He believes Salvation to have a significant advantage against them. He has also stated that the children of the Chosen become Chosen and that they will never hurt him, kill him or ever let him leave. It appears likely that Harry will do what he can to prevent others from being Chosen, but also wants to return because he can’t handle life as not a Chosen. He behaves in a subdued manner around his sister, Patricia Nicholson, and his friend, Allanah Santiago, suggesting he feels a great deal of shame regarding his previous behaviours and his current physical appearance. Body dysphoria is likely considering the manner in which he were augmented. EVALUATION: Hammond believes he is a rational, composed person and while among the rangers likely feels that he is in control of his own thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It is my opinion that he will abandon us at the first opportunity but that he will do so in an attempt to both protect us from Salvation’s wrath and because he will be confused and “absorbed” back into the mind state developed by Salvation through a combination of pharmaceutical (via neural augmentation) and verbal brainwashing. WARNING: Should he ever escape and rejoin Salvation, the comparison between the certainty and faux unconditional love of his brain washing masters and the raw pain of confronting his family plus the legitimate complexity of his real emotions among the rangers will only serve to further cement his brain washing. He is in a very vulnerable position right now. RECOMMENDATION: '''Avoid exposure to the cult until his self-esteem is strong enough to withstand the temptation to return to a state of certainty. If any degree of exposure is necessary, ensure he believes that you are more at threat by him going to them than by him staying. In the end, he is still a ranger. Merely a traumatised and terrified one desperate to find meaning in a horrific situation. Treating him as a ranger without overwhelming him with choices / options nor providing him with opportunities to escape would be ideal. Once we reach a safe and secure location, we could allow him supervised long-term access to Probie Glitch in order to undermine Salvation control. After all, Glitch’s personality characteristics coupled with Hammond’s awe of his actions as DJ Glitch are likely to reinforce Hammond’s protective traits. However all access must be supervised as Hammond believes that killing Glitch would be a mercy compared to what others in Salvation would do to him. Quotes '''Quotes By * "Quote" - reference Quotes About * "You are really good at this diplomatic relations thing aren't you." -- Circuit to Harry, sarcastically. Conversations * "Quote" - reference Rumours * In a relationship with Glitch Category:Characters Category:NPC Category:Human